Figure three shows a harvesting module with multiple nitinol wires 7, the rigid support member 8, and. Picture a water wheel that takes in water at the top of a waterfall, but lets it out halfway down. Thermophysical properties of 60nitinol for mechanical component applications malcolm k. With this engine, would having more nitinol wire loops or thicker gauge wire give the engine more torque or faster revolutions. The alloy, named nitinol for nickel titanium naval ordnance laboratory, exhibits a shape memory effect, that is, it radically changes shape when subjected to a temperature change. And after digging and researching a loads of informati.
Heat is transferred from the source, through the working body of the engine, to the sink, and in this process some of the heat changes into work by using the qualities of the gas or liquid inside the engine. If the engine could put off more torque with thickermore wires, it then could be geared to a separate axle. T will be utilizing half the possible heat, and be 50% efficient. Stanford national aeronautics and space administration glenn research center cleveland, ohio 445 abstract the linear thermal expansion coefficient, specific heat capacity, electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity of 60. Diy nitinol engine questions energy forum at permies.
Jun 09, 2016 nitinol is a kind of wire that has a memory. Jan 23, 2014 all prototypes can be found in the paper called proceedings of nitinol heat engine conference 1978. So, the efficiency of an ideal engine operating between two temperatures will be equal to the fraction. The sma heat engine mentioned in claim 1 where the sma is nitinol.
Material data sheet shape memory nitinol alloys sm495 sm500 physical properties melting point. Moreover, for a steady state heatmechanical energy conversion, the critical temperature of the memory component is found in terms of the t and to temperatures. The wire was stretched in a strain hardened state and after annealing at 5000c. Schiller abstract this work presents a novel approach to arranging shape memory alloy sma wires into a functional heat engine. Ive heard about it quite a few times, people used to say me that it looked and worked like a perpetual machine.
Different alloys are named according to the weight percentage of nickel, e. A closedcycle device is one that periodically returns to its initial conditions, repeating the same process over. It uses the unique property of nitinol alloy to generate mechanical motion from heat. Heat engine nitinol metal engine driven by hot and cold water.
The heat engineis a very special kind of heat engine that demonstrates the conversion of heat energy into mechanical energy. Thermophysical properties of 60nitinol for mechanical. Thermal characteristics of a nitinol heat engine springerlink. Nitinol wires were constrained to the shape of a thoracic aortic aneurysm stent unit on a shapesetting mold. Full text views reflects the number of pdf downloads, processing of small scale nitinol billets by induction heated nonconventional isothermal extrusion. Is the nitinol heat engine being investigated by any. Book volumes may be downloaded either by the entire volume or by selecting the individual chapter. Heat setting medical stents on mandrel to set proper size is the objective of this induction heating application. For example, the earths atmosphere can be modeled as a heat engine in which the input energy transfer is by means of electromagnetic radiation from the sun. After three years of research and many prototypes, we have just released a new nitinol thermal generator series that is world changing. Efficiency of the solidstate engine made with nitinol memory material. It operates somewhat the same as a regular minto wheel but instead of using a low boiling point liquid to provide the pumping action it uses a set of nitinol springs.
Mechanical features analysis of the nitinol alloy under. Each project includes a materials and tools list, as well as online information on where to find specialized components. Nitinol engine is f ed by the heat energy of lp water by means of heat transfer at the boundary of wire lp water. Superelastic nitinol wire is set by restraining the wire in a fixture and thermal processing. In general, the efficiency of a given heat transfer process whether it be a refrigerator, a heat pump or an engine is defined informally by the ratio of what.
What temperature difference is required for a nitinol heat. It was only few years later when the niti alloy was discovered and observed to be most efficient with respect to mechanical energy to heat energy ratio shape memory alloy known. The design and the principle of mrhe operation the martensite rotor heat engines 8, 9, 24 are superior to nonrotor martensite heat engines 10, 6, 7 in efficiency. Jan 14, 1986 the linear output nitinol engine of the present invention incorporates the same basic thermal cycling principal as the heat engine described in my u. Nitinol is a shape shifting memory metal alloy that can produce mechanical energy by simple temperature variation. Heat setting nitinol medical stents induction heating. Metallographic observations of relief effects associated with changes in the microstructure of wires simulating the working elements are consistent with this. Pdf shape memory effect and performance of a nitinol engine. This work presents a novel approach to arranging sma. Nitinol heat engine with mechanical storage mechanism. Significant contributions include the design itself, a preliminary analytical model and the. Schiller thesis submitted to the faculty of virginia polytechnic institute and state university in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a degree of master of science in mechanical engineering dr. Banks, an independent machinist and inventor in point richmond, california, develops novel heat engines using a peculiar alloy called nitinol.
Each volumes title page with preface, contents list, steam tables, and. Excerpted from the muscle wires project book mondotronics. Feb 07, 2018 this is a follow up to a previous video. May 25, 2018 the water vortex power plant is small, inexpensive, easy to maintain and will produce abundant energy for 50 to 100 years.
Energy conversion and heat engines with a little bit of thermodynamics whether it is coal, oil, gas or nuclear power, 80% of the worlds electricity is derived from heat sources and almost all of the energy conversion processes used convert the thermal energy into electrical energy involve an intermediate step of converting the heat energy to mechanical energy in some form of heat engine. Sketch of the vt1 nitinol heat engine that uses pulleytype design. Latheman666 recently posted a video see below of a nitinol engine that uses a temperat. The nitinol s activating temperature is 70 degrees celsius. Therefore i dont have to specifically stress out all the patents and designs for the heat engines that have already been tried and developed. On the visible level, superelastic nitinol is very springyyou would have a very hard time putting a kink in it. Fixtures are created using the commercial stainless steel printing system produced by ex one. The temperature extremes evidently lie between the reverse transformation temperaturesa s anda f for the constrained wires, indicating that the device functions under the driving force generated by stressinduced. If the cycle is operated clockwise on the diagram, the engine uses heat to do net work. Pdf the efficiency and power of the martensite rotor.
Energy utilization, nitinol heat engines, engine performance efficiency. Nitinol memory metal heat engine nitinol wire stirling. In order to heat the nitinol i plan to use an electric current passing through it. This video features the final working version of the previous design. The engine consists of two working pulleys 1 and 2 with r1 and r2 radii. Nickel titanium, also known as nitinol, is a metal alloy of nickel and titanium, where the two elements are present in roughly equal atomic percentages. Feb 10, 2014 simple, easy to build, nitinol heat engine. Children will investigate the energygenerating properties of a solar cell, a radiometer, a nitinol heat engine, and a peltier cell.
Despite the united states navy declaring to the department of energy that the development of nitinol heat engines would clearly serve the national interests by helping reduce petroleum energy dependence, this technology was swept under the rug. Studies of selected mechanical properties of nitinol. A heat engine is a device that converts heat to work. Nitinol wire is soft at a low temperature and can easily be bent into simple shapes. Recently, each and every field of research utilizing the properties of nitinol. All prototypes can be found in the paper called proceedings of nitinol heat engine conference 1978.
He has taught junior high school music and science, published chamber music, and worked as a technical associate for lawrence berkeley laboratory. The difference between superelastic and shape memory nitinol is pretty basic, but it throws a lot of people off. Heat engine simple english wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Nitinol motors for harnessing low grade heat, page 1. Engine cycles for a constant mass of gas, the operation of a heat engine is a repeating cycle and its pv diagram will be a closed figure. Proceedings of the nitinol heat engine conference pdf download. It exhibits the shape memory effect and superelasticity at different temperatures.
In other words, a heat engine absorbs heat energy from the high temperature heat source, converting part of it to useful work and delivering the rest to the cold temperature heat sink. The idea of an engine cycle is illustrated below for one of the simplest kinds of cycles. The temperature extremes evidently lie between the reverse transformation temperaturesa s anda f for the constrained wires, indicating that the device functions under the driving force generated by stress. Here is a thesis done on nitinol engines dated back to 2001 this is the cumulative research of nitinol from the 70s this website sells nitinol anyone who has info or interested in a potential nitinol engine for home use, please look into this topic. This engine should put out somewhere around the equivalent of 40 watts of power. A little secret has been leaked from their labs that they have built a proof of concept model of a generator that can generate electricity from the daily change in air. The engine in his video is said to be running at 70 rpm for over 23,000,000 revolutions. This simple nitinol wire heat engine is constructed of a boomerang shaped clear acrylic holder with two high quality cast aluminum pulleys. Solar hot water nitinol heat engines packrat workshop. Put simply nitinol when heated and or cooled can be made to change from whatever shape you have bent or molded it to back to an original shape you have trained it to be in. Heat engines a heat engine is any closedcycle device that extracts heat from a hot reservoir, does useful work, and exhausts heat to a cold reservoir. Jun 06, 2012 nitinol motor experiment ii nitinol heat engine. Nov 23, 2012 thermophysical properties of 60 nitinol for mechanical component applications malcolm k.
Heat engine, shape memory alloy, and intelligent material. The heat engine is a very special kind of heat engine that demonstrates the conversion of heat energy into mechanical energy. The influence of different heat treatments on the engineering stress strain curve was investigated. Heat engines, entropy, and the second law of thermodynamics. The water vortex power plant for clean and sustainable energy. This means nitinol can change heat or cold differentials directly into mechanical work. Nitinol heat engine uses the unique property of nitinol alloy to generate mechanical motion from heat. Other methods of energy transfer are possible in the model of a heat engine, however. The idea of a heat engine that employs a shapememoryalloy sma as the mediator, through which heat flow transforms into kinetic energy is probably a few minutes younger than that of the sma alone.
I work for a well established nitinol optimization lab in new hampshire. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. Each volumes title page with preface, contents list, steam tables, and index can be individually downloaded too. Let us derive an expression for the efficiency of a heat engine. Alfred johnson who was granted a patent on this type of heat engine in 1977 patent. It takes heat from a reservoir then does some work like moving a piston, lifting weight etc and finally discharging some of the heat energy into the sink. Okay, let me firstly mention you that i had no idea about nitinol heat engine. The closed loop made of martensite alloy with shape memory effect the working body wb of engine is pulled over the working pulleys. An interesting pdf list of other nitinol engines can be found at. Temperature profiles in the nitinol working elements of a simple rocking shapememory engine have been measured and attributed to the heat transfer characteristics of the system. Apr 05, 2011 im currently working on the material nitinol, which is a shape memory alloy. Influence on thermomechanical properties of nitinol with.
Nitinol is easily available on ebay and from private companies such as kelloggs research labs this is where i buy all of my nitinol. In engineering and thermodynamics, a heat engine converts heat energy to mechanical work by using the temperature difference between a hot source and a cold sink. So im starting to do some tests with nitinol order about 5 feet of wire just to do some basic tests and get a feel for the material before i go any further. This fully assembled memory metal heat engine demonstrates the conversion of heat energy into mechanical energy. The investigations were conducted on nitinol alloy in the form of 3,1 mm diameter wire, whose af temperature as stated by the manufacturer is af 65 oc. The efficiency and power of the martensite rotor heat engine. However, numerous improvements and changes have resulted in a totally new machine which produces useful power outputs with a much simplified construction of the mechanical. I am currently investigating the effects of nitinol. A prototype of this new heat engine has been built. Ive seen a few variations on different types of motors that are powered by nitinol and am wondering if they all have the same. Feb 08, 2017 so im starting to do some tests with nitinol order about 5 feet of wire just to do some basic tests and get a feel for the material before i go any further. The vt1 shape memory alloy heat engine design city tech. The pulleys feature ball bearing construction for fluid movement.